1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to clients and servers and more particularly to client-server multitasking.
2. Background Art
Clients, servers, and client-server systems have been known. However, there is a need for client-server multitasking. A client-server multitasking system and process are needed, which are capable of information and/or service retrieval from the same and/or different ones of servers substantially simultaneously and on-the-fly, using the same and/or different ones of queries, and sorting, grouping, and/or organizing responses therefrom substantially on-the-fly.
A requestor and/or user should be capable of making substantially multiple simultaneous same and/or different requests of the same and/or different servers. The client server-multitasking system and process should be capable of organizing responses from the servers into service and/or information responses, and communicating the service and/or information responses to the requestors and/or users substantially simultaneously, and on-the-fly.
The requestors and/or users should be capable of making substantially simultaneous service and/or information requests of the same and/or different ones of servers and/or clients, using the same and/or different queries, and/or the same and/or different instructions. The client-server multitasking system and process should be capable of retrieving substantially multiple simultaneous services and/or information having the same and/or different criteria from the same and/or different servers, sorting, grouping, and/or organizing the responses from the servers and/or the clients into information and/or services responses, and communicating the service and/or information responses to the requestors and/or the users substantially simultaneously. The same and/or different ones of uniform resource locators, target resources, and/or paths may be used.
The requestors and/or the users should be capable of making multiple simultaneous searches. The searches should be capable of having at least one or a plurality of same or different queries of the same and/or different servers and/or clients. The responses from the servers and/or the clients should be capable of being organized into the service and/or information response in a variety of formats. It should be possible to sort the responses within the service and/or information response, such as, for example, by category, query, group, page, order of importance, ascending and/or descending order, alphabetically and/or numerically, or other characteristics, as determined by the requestor, and/or the user, and/or the client-server multitasking system, or to combine the responses within the service and/or information response, such as, for example, interleaving the responses one with the other, such as, for example, by order of relevance or other parameters. The responses should be capable of being grouped by search criteria, server, order of importance, or by numerical factors such as value, price, or other numerical quantifier. The responses should be presentable, for example, in ascending or descending order in interleaved format, such as top ones, twos, threes, and so on, or presentable separately to the requestor and/or the user. The order may be order of importance or relevance related, or, for example, numerically valued, such as price or stock market value.
The client-server multitasking system and process should be capable of information and/or service retrieval from the same and/or different ones of the servers substantially simultaneously and on-the-fly, using the same and/or different ones of the queries, and sorting, grouping, and/or organizing responses therefrom substantially on-the-fly.
The client-server multitasking system and process should be capable of substantially multiple simultaneous searching, using the same and/or different ones of queries of the same and/or different ones of the clients and/or servers, which may be search engines, and/or sites, and/or servers, and/or locations on the network, and additionally and/or alternatively building a client-server multitasking search engine and/or database. The client-server multitasking search engine and/or database should be capable of storing the information and/or services retrieved from the search engines, and/or sites, and/or servers, and/or locations being queried on the network, and building the client-server search engine and/or database. The client-server multitasking search engine should also be capable of being queried either directly and/or in combination with the substantially simultaneous searching, using the same and/or different queries of the same and/or different search engines, sites, servers, and/or databases. The client-server multitasking search engine and/or database should also be capable of updating information and/or services stored therein by querying sites, servers, search engines, and/or databases containing information and/or services referenced in the client-server multitasking search engine and/or database.
The client-server multitasking system and process should also be capable of use on a variety of networks, such as global area networks, and in particular, the internet, metropolitan area networks, wide area networks, and local area networks.
The client-server multitasking system and process should be capable of substantially simultaneous searching of the same and/or different ones of search engines and/or sites on the network substantially on-the-fly, with the same and/or different ones of the queries, and sorting, grouping, and/or organizing responses therefrom substantially on-the-fly.
The client-server multitasking system and process should also be capable of sorting, grouping, and/or organizing results from the servers, search engines, and/or sites, in accordance with instructions from the requestors, and/or the users, and/or instructions resident within the client-server multitasking system and/or process. The client-server multitasking system and process should also be capable of drilling down and/or up to different levels within the search engines, sites, and/or servers being queried.
The client-server multitasking system and process should be capable of providing manual and/or timed updates. Such timed updates should allow for motion related presentation to the requestor and/or the user.
The client-server multitasking system and process should be capable of incorporating information and/or services into a variety of user interfaces at different locations in the user interfaces, grouping, and/or organizing the information and/or services, and optionally eliminating duplicate information and/or services.
The client-server multitasking system and process should be capable of incorporating links, graphics, video, text, and audio, and/or combinations thereof, and selective advertising, according to selectable search, query, sorting, and/or grouping criteria, and/or combinations thereof into the information and/or services to be delivered to the user interfaces. The user should also be capable of placing orders, such as purchases, and/or other types of orders, payments, confirmations thereof, and/or combinations thereof, either directly and/or through servers and/or sites on the network.
The client-server multitasking system should be capable of use in a variety of applications, and be capable of information comparison and/or trend analysis of information from the same and/or different sources substantially simultaneously. The client-server multitasking system should be capable of, for example, determining best query results, with respect to a plurality of search engine results; purchasing and/or price comparisons, viewing and/or reviewing prices/values and trends for different sites, determining lowest costs and lowest cost analyses for wholesale and retail purposes; product availability, e.g., airline tickets, pricing, and ticket availability, from different airlines to the same and/or different locations; purchasing of commodities and/or stocks form the same and/or different sites with updates every few seconds and/or minutes; obtaining prices and/or values in different stock markets substantially simultaneously; and searching for jobs on the same and/or different job sites, using the same and/or different job criteria, for example, on a daily basis, the job sites having changing job availability; and/or a combination thereof, all substantially simultaneously. The client-server multitasking system should be capable of presenting information and/or services for review and/or updating from the same and/or different ones of sites, servers, and/or applications substantially simultaneously, and trend analysis thereof, using a variety of sorting, grouping and/or organizing criteria, according to the needs of the requestor, and/or the user, and/or resident within the client-server multitasking system.
A client server-multitasking system and process are needed, which are capable of service and/or information retrieval from at least one server, organization, communication, and presentation of such services and/or information to at least one requestor, and/or the user, and/or optional storage, and/or retrieval of such services and/or information from the optional storage. The client-server multitasking system and process should be capable of building a client-server multitasking system search engine and/or database from responses returned from the servers, search engines, and/or sites being queried and/or searched, and/or having requests made thereof. The client-server multitasking system search engine and/or database having stored information and/or services therein should also be searchable, be capable of full text searches thereof, and be searchable by the servers and/or the clients on the network, either separately and/or in combination with the substantially simultaneous multiple same and/or different searches and/or queries of the same and/or different servers on the network. Information in the client-server multitasking system search engine and/or database should also be searchable and/or retrievable, and should be capable of being incorporated into the service and/or information responses delivered to the user interfaces, according to search criteria, selectively and/or automatically, by the requestor, and/or the user. The client-server multitasking system search engine and/or database should also be capable of spidering, and/or roboting, and/or querying sites, services and/or information to be stored therein and/or stored in the client-server multitasking system search engine and/or database, and updating the services and/or information to be stored and/or stored in the client-server multitasking system search engine and/or database.
The client-server multitasking system and process should be capable of retrieving, parsing, processing, formatting, organizing, grouping, sorting, and consolidating services and/or information from the same and/or different ones of the servers and/or clients having the same and/or different structures, formats, organizations, groupings, and/or data structures, and incorporating the parsed, processed, formatted, organized, grouped, sorted, and consolidated services and/or information into user responses for delivery to and use by the requestors and/or users.
The client-server multitasking system and process should be capable of performing as a multiple query search engine, which performs multiple queries of multiple sites, and performing as a single point of sale for purchasing multiple products from multiple sources.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a client-server multitasking system and process capable of information and/or service retrieval from the same and/or different ones of servers substantially simultaneously and on-the-fly, using the same and/or different ones of queries of the same and/or different ones of the servers, and sorting, grouping, and/or organizing responses therefrom substantially on-the-fly, and communicating service and/or information responses to the requestors and/or users substantially simultaneously and on-the-fly. The client-server multitasking system and process should be capable of use on a variety of networks, such as global area networks, and in particular, the internet, metropolitan area networks, wide area networks, and local area networks, and be capable of searching search engines and/or other sites substantially simultaneously and on-the-fly. The client-server multitasking system and process should be capable of sorting, grouping, and/or organizing results from the servers, search engines, and/or sites, in accordance with instructions from the requestors, and/or the users, and/or instructions resident within the client-server multitasking system and/or process. The client-server multitasking system should also be capable of use in a variety of applications, and be capable of information comparison and/or trend analysis of information from the same and/or different sources substantially simultaneously. The client-server multitasking system and process should also be capable of building a client-server multitasking system search engine and/or database from responses returned from the servers, search engines, and/or sites being queried and/or searched, and/or having requests made thereof, be capable of being searched and/or queried, querying sites referenced in the client-server multitasking system search engine and/or database, and updating information and/or services stored therein. The client-server multitasking system and process should be capable of retrieving, parsing, processing, formatting, organizing, grouping, sorting, and consolidating services and/or information from the same and/or different ones of the servers and/or clients having the same and/or different structures, formats, organizations, groupings, and/or data structures, and incorporating the parsed, processed, formatted, organized, grouped, sorted, and consolidated services and/or information into user responses for delivery to and use by the requestors and/or users.